The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas · Page 44

The Salina Journal Entertainment Sunday, April 7,1985 Page 4 'Cosby* good neighbor in Brooklyn NEW YORK (AP) - "The Cosby Show," critically praised and a winner in the ratings, is also a darn good neighbor to a score of Brooklyn shopkeepers and tenants who live near the studio where Bill Cosby tapes his series. NBC's hit comedy, about a nice family from a New York City neighborhood, is made in a small studio on 14th Street and Avenue M in the heavily ethnic, residential section of Mid wood in Brooklyn. There's no Hollywood fantasy trip on Cosby's corner. No drive- in studio in a private corner of the world. Staffers on "The Cosby Show" trip over real life and regular folks every day. Across the street, on another corner of 14th and M, is the CWA Coffee Shop. Owner Roza Josilev- ich, an ex-lawyer from Russia who immigrated here via Israel, cooks the on-camera and off-camera food for "The Cosby Show." Mrs. Josilevich won't let anyone else prepare Cosby's meals. Not even her husband, Leon. For a recent episode, she made brisket of beef with Italian rice pie. "Mr. Cosby is so nice," said Mrs. Josilevich. "He was busy with a meeting one morning, but the next time he saw me he said he was so sorry for not saying 'good morning.'" A frayed newspaper review of "The Cosby Show" is taped to CWA's window. It's a rave, and Mrs. Josilevich says it will stay on as long as "Cosby" does. The show's writers have offices above the coffee shop. Down the block is Maxie's Discount, the Jerusalem II kosher pizzeria, the 20th Century Fish Market and Jack's Pizza shop, where the Bill Cosby relaxes with stage daughter Keshia Knight. walls boast pictures of Ronald Reagan, three Apollo astronauts and this sign: "No Smoking or Combing Hair Behind Counter." Pete Ruggeri, who manages Jack's with his mother, Frances, says "Cosby's" teen-age actors come by for slices with extra cheese. They give him tickets to tapings, but he works too late. He plans to go during his August vacation. Mrs. Josilevich considers "Cos- by" a terrific neighbor. "The show makes the street very alive and safe," she said. As much as the show gives the neighborhood, Cosby and his coworkers say they get a lot back. "Working here is a reality check and balance," said producer Caryn Sneider. "It's subtle, but it keeps us honest." In two "Cosby" episodes this season, for instance, the kids came home bundled in winter gear from the tips of their heads to their toes. "In Los Angeles," said Ms. Sneider, who moved from California for the series, "we never would have been as conscious about the cold and the winter wardrobes." But for Sarah LeMire, the show's costume designer, Brooklyn is a liability. She says the borough's clothing stores offer neither the variety nor the quirkiness of Manhattan's shops. "We don't want the kids to dress in the same colors," Ms. LeMire said. "With a black family on TV, you can't go with light colors. There'd be too high a contrast, so I end up shopping in the red and blue families for intense colors. Most things I find in the big department stores in Manhattan. I have to do a lot of back- and-forth traveling." For quick repairs, the staff uses the tailor shop across the street, said Frank Scotti, the studio's facility manager for 24 years. When there was a problem with the elevator, the nearby Locus Body and Fender Shop came right over and fixed it. They refused money; they got tickets. The cops on the beat, inspectors and almost anybody with a Brooklyn accent can get tickets. In fact, Scotti figures 40 percent of the audience for the first taping on Thursdays comes from Brooklyn. "The people in this area are like family to me," he said. Ms. Sneider and the other producers work out of a modified three-bedroom apartment a block from the studio, where people offer advice in the elevator. Newsman Brokaw loves to tell stories NEW YORK (AP) - Tom Brokaw loves to tell stories. On the air. Off the air. Around a campfire. In the newsroom. And, perhaps most of all, on himself. "I-used to wear sweaters all the time when I was on the "Today" show. But when Dan got all that attention for wearing sweaters, I knew it would be impossible for me to ever wear one on 'Nightly News.'" Brokaw- recently marked his third anniversary as anchor of NBC's dinnertime newscast. The "NBC Nightly News," basking in the glow of better ratings, has been a consistent No. 2 behind ,Dan father's, "CB,S Evening {News" this year 1 . ' " J In the TV news wars, Rather has a hard-nose image and his pullover. Peter Jennings has years of experience abroad and his accent. Brokaw has a solemn boyishness and his roots. Brokaw went to high school in Yankton, S.D., and gets starry- eyed about Norman Rockwell Americana and the call of the wild. His colleagues say he has a Yankton yarn for every occasion. "He often opens up the morning news conference with a story," said "Nightly News" producer Cheryl Gould. "We'll tease him, 'Oh, no, not another Yankton story,' but that doesn't stop him." "Almost everybody at the meeting is from New York or from some big city," said Brokaw, who started working at KMTV in Omaha, Neb., in 1962, "so I'm Just offeringa perspec-r tive ! about small-town' life and farms." It's hard to know a man from watching him read introductions to stories 30 minutes a night. NBC staffers say the format makes Brokaw appear rigid and formal. He agrees there's an "artifice" to reading copy. And he jokes about the perception of TV news- readers as all teeth and hairspray. "Just give me the script, doll," he kidded Ms. Gould at a recent story conference. His colleagues believe the bona fide Brokaw emerges in his on- air ad-libs and conversations during "Nightly News" interviews and election all-nighters. "I think he shines off the cuff," said Steve ( Friedman, executive producer of the "Today" show, for which Brokaw was the host from 1976 to 1981. "NBC is better off when the Brokaw the, man and not Brokaw the anchorman shows up." "My impression working around him is that he's a small- town boy who makes a lot of money but is still down to earth," said Edward Deitch, a writer for the "Nightly News." "In the newsroom, sometimes his shirttail even sticks out." Who he is to some colleagues is "Duncan the Wonderhorse," a tag invented by Friedman to note Brokaw's boundless energy. He throws himself into everything he does. A sign in his office, a birthday present from his staff, touts him as "Honorary Member of the Guild," then lists nearly every job classification imaginable. Brokaw is not one to sit still outside the office, either. He spends vacations back-packing, mountain-climbing and skiing. Mick Jagger Mick Jagger releases a solo-album By ROBIN WELLES Copley News Service HOLLYWOOD - It's been 20 years since Mick Jagger rolled onto the scene and jerked his skinny body, around in front of something called the Rolling Stones. One of life's mysteries is how such a puny-looking person could muster the explosive energy that radiated from the stage and pervaded a first album called, appropriately enough, "No Fade Away." Now 41, and still as lean as ever, Jagger has decided to go solo for the first World of Music time with his "She's the Boss" album for Columbia. Could be that his decision had something to do with the lukewarm reception accorded the Stones' last studio album, "Undercover." Whatever the reason, Jagger has come forth with a blazing blend of rock, reggae, fusion and pop served up against a backdrop of high-tech electronics. It is, in short, very modern Jagger. But the LP is carried, as usual, by his very personal vocal pyrotechnics. The voice shows no signs of withering — or softening — with age. Jagger has, of course, not abandoned the Rolling Stones. The group has been pondering a new album in Paris, hoping to take the sting out of the "Undercover" failure. Mick tools around Paris in an aged Renault, recognized by few people.